Genuinely as hard as "bring back the NGage." Nobody wants to buy a smartphone that's also a console platform. There's no three-year contract required, and AT&T doesn't get to micromanage the dashboard, but it's still two wildly different commitments for no sufficient benefit. It means being stuck with a wonky smartphone on a longer console lifecycle and overpaying for a console with all the limitations of a smartphone.

By contrast - this is a controller with a screen in it. That's all. Why wouldn't they sell that? What's the downside, for them? You buy another accessory priced well beyond its material costs, you provide all the electricity and electronics necessary for it to do anything, and they don't care if you ever play games on it. It's not lashed to the success of yet another online store. It's not even a vehicle for recurring subscription fees. It's a dongle for another toy. They have no incentive to force it to catch on. If it doesn't sell - they'll just stop.

[–] Pxtl@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's been over a decade since Xperia Play, and two since ngage. The market has changed, people are now spending a grand on phones, gamers are now buy some very expensive hardware for their hobby.

The biggest hurdle would actually be the Google Android rules about accessing Play Services on a device that would also need its own store for PlayStation branded games.

[–] mindbleach@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Don't recall mentioning price as an obstacle.

The fact people are buying expensive-ass phones is an obstacle to any console trying to be a cell phone or vice-versa. Phones already play modern-ass video games. Any new iPhone is surely more capable than a Switch. Who's going to be swayed into buying some custom Sony bullshit just to access an entirely separate wallet vacuum?

If Sony was going to release a handheld, it'd just be an under-powered PS5 variant, as a Nintendo Switch knockoff. AMD would be happy to provide appropriate chips.

[–] mee@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think the issue is always going to be games. Who wants to make games targeting such a small userbase? Half of the Android games don't even have good controller support (looking at you Genshin/Honkai)

[–] Pxtl@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

I feel like Sony is the kind of company with enough muscle to get them to add controller support.